Attendance - WTF?

i was mostly referring to the fact that when the team is winning, a casual fan might choose to watch tv at home or a bar rather than go to a live tier two event.

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This might be a bigger issue than most people realize. I've stayed home plenty of times to watch the Jays or Rock on TV at home over watching a live sporting event in person. At least a couple times this year I've stayed home from an Amerks game to watch the Rock on NLLTV, or have at least left the Amerks game early to watch the Rock (or some other event, such as UFC or Bellator).

That and I feel like he soapboxes every chance he gets, plus he was kinda a dick to my friends at the post game party after Colin Doyle day last year. And Jare if you're reading this, I'll say it to your face at Fann Cup in Philadelphia this July

I do sorta wonder if marketing to the hipster crowd would benefit the Rock at all.

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Maybe......but, they would need to make it far more "unique", "ironic", "campy", something.

They would have to do what a few of us were figuring all along and embrace all of the stuff - ridiculous hits, fighting, Cordingley-unleashing-F-bombs-at-referees-in-a-way-that-would-make-a-sailor-with-Tourettes-blush - that other rough sports have decided are beneath them.

Lower bowl does look pretty well sold for tomorrow unless they're holding a bunch of seats for groups who could be subject to last second cancellations. The center of the upper deck looks rather solid as well.

So, attendance is barely a touch up from where things stood after 7 games last season. It looks like the Rock are averaging 9,364 through 7 games, last year they were at 9,315 before finishing up with 9,624 on average.

If you take out the one really bad weather outlier, they're average 9,742 for the season. 3 straight crowds of over 10,000 has been nice, and hadn't occurred since the middle of the 2015 season.

It'd be pretty swell if they could find a way to get the season average up over 10,000 for the year.

On a more positive note:
This Friday's game looks like it will have the highest attendance for a Rock home game this season. The last bunch of games have been 10k +. Definitely a step in the right direction.

I don't think the early games experiment was a big success in terms of attendance. Might be better to start the season in Jan.

I don't think the early games experiment was a big success in terms of attendance. Might be better to start the season in Jan.

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Right now, the league as a whole is only down 471 people on average from all of last year. And there are still 2 home games to come for each of the top 3 teams in attendance -- Sask., Colorado and Buffalo. The Rock is only down 144 people in average attendance from all of 2017. With 1 home game left, they could end up virtually flat....and so could the league as a whole.

If the NLL wants to expand the number of games, their options are to start earlier or to go later. I think they're choosing to go earlier.